When the National Procurement System comes on stream, it is expected to provide a level playing field for persons bidding to supply Government contracts.

Attorney General, Adriel Brathwaite, told accountants that the new procurement legislation would guide how contracts from Government would be awarded, and ensure transparency to ensure that businesses, once they qualified, stood an equal chance of getting work from Government.

He made these remarks as he delivered the feature address today during the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados??? 2014 conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre under the theme: Celebrating our Past, Securing our Future.

Mr. Brathwaite explained that the new legislation would strengthen the public procurement legal framework, which would support the preparation of a public procurement policy, regulations and standard documentation.

???In addition, it will also improve procurement operations, including the establishment of the Procurement Policy Unit. That would provide a normative regulatory body, and result in the institutional strengthening of key players in the public procurement arena, especially the Central Purchasing Department, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Office of the Auditor General and the Tenders and Special Tenders Committees,??? the Attorney General stated.

He added that the procurement institutional capacity would also be strengthened by implementing a career stream in public procurement, and establishing a training programme for entities involved in the process.

The new legislation would also result in the modernisation and update of the procurement technological infrastructure, focusing on the establishment of an e-tendering system to disseminate procurement opportunities and the results of tenders and procurement processes.

julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb

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